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Transporting snow plow in warm weather, how to prevent overheating?


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I know they easiest way to prevent overheating is to put the plow on my trailer or in the bed, but I don't have a forklift. I don't want to try to drag the plow up ramps by hand. So I would prefer to transport my plow while mounted on the truck. 2015 Silverado 1500 with Western HTS.

We are selling our rural house in July. Building a new house next year. For the coming winter we will be in a duplex and I will store my plow in my grandpa's barn. The problem is he lives about an hour away. It is all country roads, so I can drive 55 or whatever speed i want. What I'm really wondering if there is a preferred plow position to maximize airflow over the radiator. All the way up? angled? as low as possible?

During winter I usually keep it straight and less than half-way up. But when I bought this plow I had to drive about 20 miles on the freeway in August, and I got a heat warning on the DIC. so I want to avoid that this time. I thought travelling a faster speed would force the air to move more, but apparently not. I never have engine heat problems in the winter, though the outside air temp sensor often reads too high if its not windy. That's not really a problem for this trip.

Anyway, I'm hoping someone has some tips for driving with the plow on in weather that will probably be around 80 degrees. Thanks.

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Caveat here, I have no experience with a snow plow but thinking about air flow and I would think your best blade position would be at it's highest setting and the blade angled like you were plowing snow to the curb, you would get some airflow underneath and around the drivers side of the blade to the grill area. With the blade low and straight ahead all the air is going to be deflected around the sides and up and over the hood. You don't mention whether the trailer you have is open or enclosed, if enclosed I understand, if open and the blade just won't clear the trailer fenders from the side to drop it, you might be able to find an area where you can ramp up the front end of your truck in relation to the trailer. That is a small hill with a flat area on top where you would park your trailer. I've even seen grocery store loading docks where the trailer drops into a small pit. Good luck.

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  • 2 weeks later...

update:

it was record high temps in our area the last 4 days. highs over 90. I left home in the morning right after some showers went through so it was only 70. I turned on the tow-haul mode and drove very conservatively, up to 55 mph max. Plow was low and slightly angled. If I angled it any more it would drag the corner on bumps.

 

I monitored the coolant temp on my Torque lite app. It hung around 235-240 most of the time while cruising, only climbing to 250 once while ascending a hill. Every small town I went through at a slower speed the temp would drop into the 210-220 range pretty fast. (210 is the normal temp)

 

I was also pulling my snowmobile on a flat bed aluminum trailer. so that weight was barely 2000 lbs, I don't think it the truck even noticed the weight. All in all my truck handled it fine. I was way more worried than I needed to be.

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